If you’ve been around me, you’ve realized that I’ve got ADD. But I didn’t know I did…and then when I did know, I didn’t want to admit it. And then when I did finally admit it, it was because it was making a mess of my life and my career. And when I got over my fear of mind-altering substances, I got on medication for it.
Today was the first day on the new meds.
Wow.
So it’s time-release, so the headache I thought I was getting five minutes after taking it was likely psychosomatic. On the bus, I could feel my attention still bouncing around and was all, “Huh. Not working.” And then I nearly missed my bus stop because I was so hyperfocused on what I was reading.
And today it’s been weird — I do feel a little disconnected, which isn’t horrible, and I’m either having balance issues or I’m hyperaware of the little automatic corrections your body makes to stay upright. But those are the only side effects. Oh, and I’m still on my first soda as of 12:32 p.m., which means that I might, uh, not need to self-medicate with caffeine anymore. I think? Could also be the appetite suppression that’s known to accompany the drug.
But how does it work?
Well, so far, so good. I seem to be handling the multi-change environment a lot better than I normally do. Switching from task to task is easier, and my focus is starting to get tighter already. If I bounce away from something — like writing this post, for example — I get irritated with the interruption and go right back to what I was already doing.
I expect for the first month of this, I’ll be posting about it semi-regularly. It’s interesting when you mess with your brain chemistry for positive effect. Stay tuned.
UPDATE 1: It’s been almost ten hours since I took the pill and I think I just hit the end of the time-release. I feel like I ran into a brick wall — headache, loss of focus, sudden desire to consume caffeine again.